The Detention Club
by daydreamer-022
Summary: FINISHED Mia gets thrown into Saturday morning detention and havoc follows.
1. Detention

Since my other stories are kind of flopping right now, I thought I'd give you guys something new to read for a while. The other stories will get posted eventually, but I just want to start something new. If Liss has time this week she will update it, cos I'm going away for a week.

I idolise John Hughes. He's my hero. So like my Fifteen Candles story, this one is kind of Breakfast Club inspired.

And Happy Birthday, Juju. This one's for you.

* * *

I didn't do anything wrong. I swear I didn't. I don't know why Principal Gupta feels the need to punish me like this, I SWEAR IT WASN'T ME!

Ok, so maybe it was me a little bit. And maybe it was wrong. But it's not like I meant for Principal Gupta to get so upset by it. It was supposed to be a joke (or so Lilly tells me). So it's totally unfair of her to send me to Saturday detention for it.

At least I'm not the only person here though. Lilly is also being punished for the same crime as me, and Lana and Josh are here for God knows what reason. They were probably caught Doing It in the locker rooms or something since apparently they're back together now. And then there's a couple of other kids I don't know too. Not kids I'd particularly like to get to know either.

Lars, to his dismay, is squashed in a desk at the back of the room. His glock wouldn't fit, so it's resting menacingly on the desk.

"This is bullshit," Lilly quipped. "Freedom of speech is not something you should be punishing students for. Gupta should be praising us and holding us up in assembly as role models for the clones who populate this Godforsaken school."

"Lilly," I said gently. Gentle, soothing tones usually work to calm Lilly's fractured nerves at times like this. "I think maybe we took it a little far. Freedom of speech is one thing, but what we did…"

"Mia!" Lilly barked. "Are you saying you regret what we did? Never, I repeat never, regret your actions. That's the sign of a weak person. We did what we believed in, and we need to stay true to that and stand up for it."

I didn't want to add that I'd only been doing what Lilly had believed in, and thought we should do. I didn't think it was necessarily the right thing to do. I certainly didn't feel the need to broadcast to the entire street outside school that Principal Gupta supposedly runs a sheep colony. I mean, I only did it because of Lilly. Peer pressure, I tell you. If anything, she's making _me_ a sheep, not a free-minded individual like she thinks she is.

So now, because of Lilly and the five foot sign she had us tie on the roof of the school, I'm back at school at eight am on Saturday morning. It's a good thing Grandmere had given me the weekend off in order to 'prepare' myself for next weekend's ball. Ditching her for detention would not have sat well with her.

Saturday morning detentions are overseen by a senior from the school. It counts as an extra curricular activity on College applications, and so long as you have the balls to keep people in line, you have the whole day, with the library at your disposal, to research and study. It's a nerds dream job…expect for the whole keeping Jocks and jerks in line part. But there's always a teacher somewhere on campus, correcting tests or whatever, in case anything goes wrong.

"I know that, Lilly," I replied tiredly. "But I just think that…"

I never did get to tell Lilly what I thought, much like usual, because the library door opened and the senior in charge walked in. My mouth hit the floor in shock.

And I wasn't the only one in disbelief. "Michael?" Lilly coughed and sputtered.

Either he didn't hear her, or he chose to ignore her. He looked at both of us briefly, and then sat down at the front desk. "Most of you have been here before, you know the drill. No talking, no eating until I tell you it's lunch time and no distracting other people. Use this time to study, or use it to sleep. I don't care. Just get on with it."

Then he buried his head in a book.

That was it. No 'Hi, Mia, how are you?' No 'How's it going?' No nothing. Not that I expected him to say anything to me, but it would've been nice.

Who am I kidding? It would have been great. I've been idolizing the guy forever. But it's fruitless. Like he's ever going to be interested in a flat chested, stupid-at-Algebra fourteen-year-old like me. And besides, he's Lilly's brother. You just don't do that. You don't date best friends' ex-boyfriends or family members. It's not kosher.

Oh, but I _want_ to date him! I don't care if he's Lilly's brother! I'm sure it matters to him, the fact that I'm his little sisters' best friend, but it doesn't matter to me!

"Mia!" I snapped out of my daydream of roller skating hand in hand with Michael around Central Park (where I didn't fall over at all once, so it couldn't have been a premonition. Damnit), and looked over at Lilly, who'd whispered my name.

"What?" I whispered back.

"Do you know why Michael's here?"

"No. Why would I know? He's your brother."

"Shh. No talking," Michael called out, not even looking up from his book.

Lilly tore out of scrap piece of paper and scribbled furiously on it for a minute. Then she passed it over.

_Well he never tells me anything. I thought he may have mentioned it that night after the school dance. You know, when you two disappeared into his bedroom._

I turned beetroot red. Not that there was anything to hide. It's not as if anything had happened last week when Michael and I were alone in his bedroom. Please, I _wish_ there was something to hide.

_You knew about that? _I wrote back. I hadn't thought anyone had noticed we disappeared. He was only showing me how he's taught himself to play the guitar. He's really talented too. He played me a song he wrote himself, Tall Drink of Water. Every time I think of the song I find myself stupidly wishing it had been written for me. About me. Ha, I'll keep dreaming. _And no, he didn't tell me about supervising detention. Maybe he does it to get away from you on weekends_.

I passed it back and opened up my Algebra book. No point in wasting this opportunity to brush up on my non-existent Algebra skills. Michael won't tutor me forever. Unfortunately.

A second later another note was thrown at me. And by thrown, I mean _thrown_. Lilly's aim is as good as her IQ, which is saying a lot. And when she puts a bit of muscle behind her throws, wadded up bits of paper can actually hurt when they hit you in the face. Particularly when they hit you in the eye.

"Ow," I muttered rubbing my eye and glaring at her. She, in turn, was glaring back.

_What do you mean by that? Are you saying I'm not a nice person to be around? Who's the one with the boyfriend, Mia?_

Whoa, that was a little below the belt. Sure my comment hadn't been too nice, but she knows how I feel about not having a boyfriend!

I wanted to write back '_A boyfriend who tucks his sweaters into his pants, always has food in his braces and is a mouth-breather! No thanks, I'd rather go without_.' But today is going to be boring enough as it is, like I need the added grief of Lilly being mad at me. So instead, I wrote:

_I didn't mean it like that, Lilly. I just meant that maybe this is something that he can do by himself, a bit of alone time. Why don't you just ask him? And maybe you should try out for the baseball team while you're at it. You could be a great pitcher._

I threw the note back, but not with as much force as she'd thrown it, and looked up at Michael. To my horror, or delight, I'm not quite sure, he was looking at me over the top of his book. He quickly ducked his head back underneath it.

Lilly's next note landed in front of my confused face.

_Don't think I didn't see that. I know what's going on, Mia. I'm not stupid. Even if you're too blind and thick to see it for yourself._

What? He was just checking up on me, what is she talking about? So I asked her in a note.

She wrote back immediately.

_Oh come on, Mia. No one's that blind. Just do something about it already and get it over with. Some of us have more important things to be wasting our time worrying about. And your love life is sadly not one of them._

_My love life? What are you talking about Lilly? In case you haven't noticed, I don't have a love life! Not since Josh used me last week, remember? And it's not as if that little debacle will bring the boys a runnin'._

_Whatever, Mia._

That's all she wrote. Whatever, Mia. I didn't even bother to reply again. She's so not worth it when she gets like this. It's like everyone has to be as smart as her, has to think along her wavelengths, and if they don't, they're stupid. I know I may not be as intelligent as her when it comes to things like math and whatever, but I'm not as totally useless as she always makes me out to be.

Ah hell, maybe I am.


	2. Show Down

Detention is boring. It's worse than G&T, because at least in G&T it's unsupervised and we can talk and muck around and stuff. But this is like a whole day of supervised G&T, only worse, because Josh and Lana are here.

I've been watching them for the last fifteen minutes. They're only two rows in front of me, and at first they were kissing like there was no tomorrow. I kept seeing Michael throwing disapproving glances their way, but he never said anything. And they stopped of their own accord anyway. Now they're arguing in hushed tones. Michael's told them off once or twice, but they won't listen.

"…nothing, ok? As if!"

That was Josh. I can't quite hear all of their conversation, but from what I can gather Josh did something that Lana is angry about. Oh to be a fly on the wall next to them!

"…meant something…dumped me, me!" Lana started getting louder.

"Shh," Michael said again, looking them straight in the eyes.

"Shut up, Moscovitz," Josh said in a normal tone. "Lana, baby, listen to me. She meant nothing to me. I did because I thought I could get something out of it. It's not as if I actually felt something for the stupid girl!"

Ooh, this is getting interesting! Obviously Josh cheated on Lana, and she's pissed about it.

But wait a minute, when did he have chance to cheat on her? They only got back together this week because he was pretending to like me the week before…

Oh no.

Lana stood up, her chair flying backwards into the desk in front of me. "You just don't get it, Josh, do you? You left me for her! Her!" She threw an accusing finger in, you guessed it, _my_ direction.

I sat back in my chair, my mouth slightly open in shock. So much for my boring day in detention.

"Lana, sit down," Michael commanded.

"Moscovitz, I thought I told you to shut up. I'm handling it, ok?" Josh yelled, now standing too.

Michael stood up too. "No, Josh, you listen to me. You guys aren't supposed to be talking, so calm down, sit down, and _you_ shut up. Maybe you guys need to sit apart from each other."

I was shocked at Michael's strength. Who knew he actually had the balls for this job?

But I didn't have too much time to revel in Michael's bravery. Lana ignored him and kept yelling, only this time, it was directed at me.

"Did it make you feel good, Mia? Did you feel _special_ when he asked you to the dance? Well how did you feel when you found out he only wanted you for your publicity? And how do you think I feel to play second fiddle to someone like _you_?"

I didn't say anything, what am I supposed to say? _It felt great, Lana. Until he ripped out my heart and threw it to the paparazzi for all the world to see. Thanks for asking._

"That's enough, Lana," Michael said, stepping forward towards her.

"Stay away from me!" she cried, near to hyperventilation point now. It was kind of funny really, I mean if the situation hadn't included me it would have been. Because I never thought that people like Lana would get this worked up. I didn't think it was possible.

Josh tried. "Lana, babe, calm down. If you want, next time there's a dance, I'll take you. I promise."

"God, Josh! You don't get it! It's not about you and any stupid dance anymore, it's about her!"

You didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know who she was talking about.

I sat frozen in my seat. All eyes in the library were turned to me.

"Stand up!" Lilly hissed. "Stand up, face her. Take her down! Do it!"

Sure, if I had the Moscovitz gene for standing up to people like Lana and Josh it'd be no problem. But I don't. So I can't tell Lana where to go, much as I'd like to.

"Don't look all innocent like that, Mia!" Lana cried, actual tears falling from her perfectly made up eyes. "I know you planned to steal Josh from me all along, I know it was you, not him!"

I looked at Michael, he had a blank expression on his face, he didn't know what to do either. But then he sort of smiled at me, and unknowingly gave me the courage to say something back.

"I did not," I said. Just like that. It may not have been as loud or as strong as I'd hoped, but at least it was something. "And you know it."

She mustn't have been expecting me to say anything in reply, from the look on her face.

"Go on," Lilly hissed again. "Keep going!"

I stood up. It was as if the Moscovitz courage gene had somehow been transferred to me through Michael's reassuring eyes and Lilly's encouraging words.

"I didn't steal Josh from you; he left you of his own free will. I was just the pawn in his little Get-Famous-Quick scheme. Too bad for him it didn't turn out very well and he had to turn back to his plan B. The At-Least-I-Can-Still-Screw-Lana-Over scheme. Only looks to me, as if that one's not turning out so well now, is it, Joshie?"

I walked past her towards the exit, leaving her and everyone else staring after me. Who knew I had it in me to say all that stuff? I sure as hell didn't.

As soon as I got out the library door I sat down against the wall next to it to catch my breath.

After a minute, the door opened, but I didn't dare myself to look up. Who was it going to be? Lars to see if I'm ok? Lana to say something catty back to me? Josh to punch me for calling him Joshie? He told me last week that he hates that name. Or maybe Lilly to congratulate me for finally growing a back bone. Or will it be…


	3. Beatrice

Woot. I'm glad you guys have responded well to this new story, it's been a while since that's happened. For those of you still reading HTGT, I'll update it before I go on my road trip next week. I'm so excited about that. Woot!

But for now, let's continue with this.

Disclaimer: Meg Cabot owns all.

* * *

When I finally looked up to see who it was that'd followed me outside, my heart skipped a few beats. It was Michael.

"I'm sorry, Michael," I choked out. "I know we're not supposed to be talking, let alone yelling, but I don't know what came over me. And I know we're not supposed to leave the room, I just needed some fresh air. I didn't…"

"Shh, Mia. It's ok. I'm not here to tell you off. I mean, yeah. That's not usually how detention is supposed to go, but it's not your fault."

He sat down next to me. Not as close as I'd have liked, but he still sat close enough that I could smell the sweet scent of soap on his skin. What is that? Lavender? Whatever it is, it's now Michael-scent forevermore.

"So you're not going to give me another detention next week?"

"Well, I dunno," Michael said in a tone I can only describe as coy. "It might not make my day so boring if you're around."

He means that only because of the whole yelling at Lana thing, right?

"Hey, what are you doing supervising detention anyway? Is this where you always are on Saturdays?"

"Yep, I've been doing it all year. And not only because it looks good on your College applications, but Gupta was so desperate for someone to do it she said she'd let me have unlimited access to the school computer system in exchange for it. That means all the internet access I want during school time and I can also look up peoples profiles. Ha, I bet you didn't know Lana's middle name is Beatice did you?"

I couldn't help but laugh. Lana _Beatrice_ Weinberger? If that ever got out it'd sure put a damper on her popularity.

"What's your middle name?" I asked him, just out of curiosity.

"James. But I don't need to ask yours. Your whole name is in your profile."

"You know my whole name?" I'm shocked. Sometimes even I have trouble remembering all of them. But why would Michael have wasted time looking up _my_ profile?

"I sure do, Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Renaldo. But what I want to know, is where's the Thermopolis? On your profile 'Mia Thermopolis' is written in brackets, like an after thought or something."

"That's Grandmere," I told him. "She never includes Thermopolis in my name. It's supposed to be Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo. She must have gotten into the school files herself and done some tweaking."

"Would your grandmother know how to tweak? Because I could always change a few things around…"

"You mean you could add that Lana's top choice for College is Hardy's Clown College? Or that Josh, as an extra curricular activity, bathes old people?"

Michael laughed out loud. "I'm sure if I wanted to do that, I could. But I meant that I could add Thermopolis to your name. I wasn't thinking along the same lines as you. But I'll think about it. Haha."

I smiled at him and took a much needed deep breath. "Cool."

"So, Thermopolis, are you ready to go back inside? I think Lana should have calmed down by now."

"I guess," I mumbled. When really, I'd rather stay outside with Michael forever.

He stood up first, then held out his hand to help me up. I gladly accepted and let him pull. When we reluctantly walked back into the library we were both surprised to see everyone was silent. Even Lana. She's now sitting across the other side of the library from Josh. A sulky look on her tear strained face. She's lucky she wore waterproof make up, or else she'd look like me that time Lilly and I were walking home and I got drenched with muddy water splashed up from the gutter when a car drove past. I've always worn waterproof make up since that day.

Michael sat down at his desk again and I walked, alone, back to mine. I ignored Josh's death stare; I ignored the druggies inquisitive looks; I ignored Lana's evil eye.

But I couldn't ignore the note Lilly threw me as soon as I sat down. It just missed my eye this time.

_I'm so proud of you! I knew you had it somewhere in you! You just needed that cow to crack for you to let it out. What did Michael say in the hallway?_

I shook my head to myself. That Lilly, she always has to know everyone else's business. She always claims not to care, but she does. If I ignore the question, she'll keep hounding me about it.

_Thanks. For the record, it felt great to tell her all that stuff. Michael just wanted to see if I was ok. He didn't say much._

I threw it back at her and caught a look at Lana. She was re-applying her make up with her hand mirror. Every now and then she'd look over at Josh, sitting about three seats away from her now.

"Josh," she whispered eventually.

Josh didn't look as if he heard. Or he didn't want to.

She said it again, a little louder this time.

"Lana," Michael said, proving that if he could hear her, Josh must have. "I think you've said enough for today."

"I just want to apologise," she said meekly.

"Ok," Michael said. "I'm sure Mia would love to hear your apology. Go."

"Not to _her_," she said, her tone getting louder again. "I want to apologise to Josh. I'm so sorry, Joshie, please forgive me. I don't want us to fight. I never should have gotten upset with you in the first place, I should have accepted what you said, and gotten over it. Please…"

"Oh, please!" Lilly cried. "You are so pathetic, Weinberger. You're crawling on your hands and knees for a guy who treats you like dirt. Don't you have any respect for yourself?"

"Shut up, pug-face. Like you know anything about anything."

"I know more than you do, Lana. I know that if you don't respect yourself, no guy will respect you either."

Lana shot daggers at Lilly. "Whatever."

Things were silent again for a few minutes. But I knew they wouldn't be silent for long.


	4. RiteWay AckBay

My road trip rocked, BTW. Best time ever.

Disclaimer: Meg owns all.

* * *

The kids who attend detention regularly have been surprisingly quite all morning. They haven't tried to make trouble for Michael, and they never put their two cents in when Lana and Josh were having their row. Maybe they know that Michael's not someone to mess with.

Or maybe I'm completely wrong, since I am about most things.

Everyone's been silent for about five minutes now. I've been watching everyone: Lilly's working on the next episode of Lilly tells It Like It Is, Michael's using the librarians computer (no doubt looking up everyone's middle names), Josh has been reading a car magazine and the other kids have had their heads bowed, deep in a whispered conversation.

They're plotting something, I know it. World domination? Or simply where they can score their next hit?

I heard Lana sigh and looked over at her. She was now sitting back in her seat, folding the piece of paper she'd been writing on. She saw me looking at her and scowled. "I'll get you for this, Amelia," she mouthed menacingly. Then, without taking her eyes off me, she threw the balled up paper in the direction of Josh.

Only because she hadn't been looking, or maybe just because her aim sucks, the paper landed on the floor behind the desk behind Josh. Right in front of me!

Lana didn't notice, she just looked over at Josh, saw that he was reading something and smiled.

Trying my hardest to not draw attention to myself (which is usually hard, what with my gigantic feet, skyscraper height, and complete lack of chest), I slumped into my seat and stuck my foot out as far as possible, reaching for the paper.

After four pained minutes, I managed to pull the note towards me. Then I simply bent down and picked it up. Success!

Not feeling even a little bit of guilt or remorse for reading someone else's private letter, I ripped it open as fast as Lilly rips open her Three Musketeer Bar when she gets cravings for them at that time of the month.

_Dear Joshie,_

_I'm so sorry for doubting that you love me. I know now that you were only doing what you thought you needed to do in order to get ahead a little more over the weak losers here._

_I was just mad because it was Mia who was the one who could help you do that. That girl has everything I want. She's a princess for crying out loud! I know my dad calls me a princess and all, but it's totally not the same._

_So when you're ready to forgive me, let me know and I'll be back by your side in a heart beat, babe._

_I love you._

_Hugs and kisses, _

_Your Lana, xxx_

Blah blah blah. Does she really resent me that much for being born a princess? Hello? It's not as if I want to be a princess! If I had the choice, believe me, I'd chose not to be.

I folded the note back up and shoved it inside my notebooks. I still don't feel bad about it. It's her own fault for having such sucky aim. Even _I_ would have had better aim, and I'm about as coordinated as an octopus on a tightrope. I guess it's a good thing cheerleaders aren't the ones throwing the ball on the field.

Apparently Lana was expecting a reply letter from Josh. She's trying to get his attention again.

"Josh! Write back! Joshie!"

Josh glanced up from his magazine and frowned at her, because he, of course, has no idea what she's talking about. Write back to what?

Lana looked quickly up at Michael, and then said, "Rite-way ack-bay," as if she thought speaking in code was the same as speaking silently.

Josh now looked even more confused. Obviously he doesn't speak Pig Latin.

"Just write back!" Lana cried, tired of Josh not understanding.

"Lana, I won't tell you to be quiet again," Michael threatened.

"Write back to what?" Josh asked, ignoring Michael.

"To the letter I wrote you. You got it right?"

"What letter?"

Lana looked around the floor for the paper, then her eyes landed on me. How she knows I had anything to do with it is beyond me. It's not as if I have a flashing GUILTY sign on my head, do I? No, I think she's just out to get me whenever she can.

"Mia! What did you do???"

"All right, that's it, Lana. Enough yelling, and enough blaming Mia for everything that goes wrong with you. It's not her fault."

"Moscovitz, shut it," Josh said sternly. "Maybe it is Mia's fault. If my Lana says it is, then maybe it is."

Lana beamed from his encouragement and support, and from the way he referred to her as 'His' Lana. Just like she'd written in the letter.

"Yeah," she cried. "Where is it, Mia? My letter. You stole it, I know you did."

I stood up. "Oh yeah? Just like I stole Josh, right? Whatever you reckon, Lana. Whatever."

I went to sit back down, but she made a lunge for me, grabbing handfuls of my hair.

"Ow!" I cried, pulling her hair back with even more force. Her having long hair makes it much easier to grab.

"Stop it!" Michael cried. I only heard Josh laugh. He probably gets a kick out of things like girl-fights.

I finally managed to push Lana of me, she fell back onto the table behind her. She held a few strands of my hair in her hand, but I held a whole fistful of hers in mine.

"You're such a bitch," she spat at me. "Why don't you just do us all a favour and leave for Geneevia or whatever already? Go on, just go. No one wants you here, you're just taking up valuable space and stealing peoples boyfriends."

I resisted the urge to cry and came back with, "If I really did steal your boyfriend, Lana, then maybe you should ask yourself why it was possible for me to do it in the first place. Maybe it's a problem with you."

She made a lunge for me again but tripped over Lilly's foot, which was sticking out predominantly. She fell face first into my desk; all my books went everywhere, and Josh's letter flew out of its hiding place.

Lilly was the only one who caught sight of it and picked it up without anyone else seeing. She raised her eyebrows at me. I shrugged and looked back to Lana struggling to get up, her lip bleeding unattractively.

"Are you ok, babe?" Josh asked, reaching down to help her up.

"Don't touch me!" she cried, before running from the room, Josh close at her heels.

We all watched them leave, but it was Lilly who was the first to notice that something was missing.

"Hey," she said softly. "Where's everyone else?"

I _knew_ those guys were up to no good!


	5. Hippity hop SPLAT Where's Schmelly?

Beta Note: I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK... Aren't you all ever so glad to see me? I know you are. You should shower me with lots of flowers, chocolate, and ADVANCE CHAPTERS. cough sorry bout that. Don't know what came over me. Anyhoo, Meechellie is off on some kind secret mission. Something to do with national security...I didn't understand it all. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I should be telling you all this...Uh-oh...what are those black cars doing here? HEL-...

beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

-

Chapter Five…

Josh ran after _his _Lana, and Michael cursed under his breath. Some fairly colourful words for someone I've never heard swear before.

Out of the eleven of us who'd started off in the room, including Michael and Lars, there was now only four left.

"Well, are you going to go find everyone? Or are you just going to let them go?" Lilly barked at him.

"I'm thinking, Lilly!" he barked back. "Now, Lana and Josh have probably only gone into the locker rooms or something, but the others, they've probably left the school grounds by now, right?"

I shrugged. How am I supposed to know?

"Or maybe they're in the gym, making a mess…or maybe they're trying to hack into the offices. Come on, let's go!"

Before Michael could get a step in the direction of the door, Lilly retorted with, "Go? I'm not running around the school looking for a pack of misfits, Michael. I'm staying here."

"Ok," he replied. "That's actually a good idea. In case anyone comes back. Mia, you come with me."

I didn't even bother arguing. Not that I wanted to. I just followed Michael out the door while Lilly sat down and opened Lana's letter to Josh, a smug look on her face.

Out in the hallway, Michael jogged ahead of me, while I tried my hardest to keep up. Lars just took extra long strides and was able to keep up, but he stayed a little farther back than us, like I've always told him to. "Michael, slow down," I said after a minute. I'm winded, and have a stitch. How unfit am I?

"Come on, Mia." He turned around and put an arm around my waist to pull me along. "Who knows what these guys are capable of. They're in detention every week. Even I don't know why."

I certainly didn't object to the help he was giving me, it even made me slow down a little more so he'd tighten his grip on my waist and help me more. It reminded me of when we slow danced at the school dance last week. Oh, that was gooood.

"Hey," he said a minute later. "What are you in for, anyway?"

What are you in for? He said it like I'm prisoner 1678435 about to be locked up in cell 314.

"You didn't hear about mine and Lilly's stunt on the school roof?"

"Oh that. You got in trouble for that? I thought it was hilarious. It certainly got Lilly more attention for her causes than she usually gets. Five-foot signs sure are more eye catching than long winded, boring email rants. She should remember that."

"Yeah, but those long winded, boring email rants of hers never get us in trouble, do they?"

"Are you saying you're not having fun in detention, Mia?" he joked. "I'll admit, this is a hell of a lot more exciting than detention usually is, but even without the drama, spending the day with me isn't so bad is it?"

There he goes again. Is he insinuating something?

"No. You know I don't mind spending time with you, Michael. It's just I'd rather do it without getting it put on my permanent record, and without people like Lana and Josh around."

"Haha, yeah. They cause quite a stir, don't they? Don't listen to anything Lana says about you or to you. I think she's a little crazy today. And as for your permanent record, don't worry; I already cleaned it up for you. There's no record of any detentions or pranks you pulled with Lilly."

I smiled up at him. "Thanks, Michael. I can't believe you did that. But won't you get in trouble?"

"Nah. They'll never notice. And besides, they'll never suspect me of such a dirty crime! Lilly, maybe. But not this Moscovitz. I'm too clean." He winked.

By this time we'd reached the offices. Michael motioned for me to be silent and let go of my waist.

Then, like a spy in an action movie, he moved silently but quickly towards the windows. If he hadn't already told me his middle name was James, I'd have bet money it was Stealth…Not that that's a name or anything…

I crept up behind him, trying my best to be stealthy, but I don't think I can carry it off as well as he does. Michael was perched on his tiptoes when I reached him, peering through the window.

"Can you see anything?" I whispered.

He wasn't expecting me to be there, he lost his footing and grip on the windowsill, falling sideways into me. We both crashed to the floor, him on top of me.

I'm not going to lie and say Michael wasn't heavy. He was. But I would have given anything in the world for him not to move just then. _Anything_.

"Are you ok?" he asked, and to my delight not moving a muscle.

"Yeah," I whispered, looking up into his gorgeous brown eyes. They were looking back into my boring grey ones. "Are…are they in there?"

"No, I couldn't see anyone. And it doesn't look as if it's been messed up or anything. Are you sure you're not hurt?"

"I'm fine…" I told him, suddenly finding his weight almost too much for my thin frame. So much for never wanting him to move. "…But you're kind of heavy."

"Sorry." He shifted his weight off me but didn't get up. His hands were propping himself up on either side of my head. He was still looking intently at me. "Is that better?"

"That's perfect," I whispered, not trusting myself to speak any louder, lest I wake up from this dream.

He smiled. Then leaned down and kissed me on the lips.

I am not even kidding!

When he finally broke his lips from mine, I opened my eyes and stared up at him. He was red, and I'm sure I wasn't that pale either. "What was that for?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I guess I kinda like you."

"Really?" My ears have fooled be before. And so has my mind. I don't want to make any mistakes on something as colossal as this!

"Yeah." He lifted one hand to brush some hair from my face. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Do you…"

That's as far as he got. Suddenly the door to the offices, which we had thought were empty, opened. Mrs. Hall came out.

"Ahem. What is going on here?"

Michael jumped off me quicker than you can say, "Big mistake," or "Never again, Thermopolis."

"Uh, we were just looking for some kids from detention. They kind of ran off."

"They kind of ran off?" she echoed. "Well, I don't think you are going to find them in Miss Thermopolis's mouth. No matter how much you search."

How embarrassing. If only the floor beneath me would just open up and swallow me whole. Lars found it funny though. I'd forgotten he was there, but now I remembered since he's sniggering.

"No, ma'am," Michael replied, a little more formally than he normally would talk to her.

"Right, then I guess we should find these runaways. Are you coming, Mia?"

Still highly embarrassed, I slowly stood up and followed them down the hallway. Michael shot a bemused look back at me and smiled.

How can he not be slowly dying of embarrassment right now? Still, maybe he just doesn't care about things like that. And I shouldn't either. Not when I've just been kissed by him like that. Embarrassment schmarrassment.


	6. Going To Mexico

Mrs. Hall walked fairly quickly through the halls towards the library. Michael slowed down to walk beside me; he even took my hand.

"So," he said softly, so Mrs. Hall wouldn't hear him. "How _do_ you feel about me?"

He gripped my hand tighter and I blushed uncontrollably. "About the same way that you feel about me." Times a hundred.

"Reeeeeeeally? How interesting." He smiled and quickly kissed me before Mrs. Hall turned around again.

"Come on, quickly now. Who knows where they could be…"

She stopped talking because of a loud noise coming from the girls' locker rooms. It wasn't a noise any of the boys who'd skipped off during mine and Lana's fight could have made. It was a girl squealing. And not in a bad way.

Mrs. Hall didn't take a second to consider what she could be walking into, she simply threw open the door and subjected us all to a sight that may have scarred me for life.

But thankfully, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Lana and Josh were in the middle of a tickling contest, lying on the floor and Lana's shirt was half off.

"God, what is going on around here?" Mrs. Hall asked to herself. "It's like you've all taken extra hormone tablets this morning. Get off her, Ritcher. And both of you, come with me."

As Lana and Josh got dressed and presentable (Lana's lip had stopped bleeding. No doubt Josh's lips adding pressure had something to do with that), Mrs. Hall, Michael and I waited outside.

"Well, Michael, now that we've found your missing detainees, maybe you can all get back to a quite detention."

I opened my mouth to say that Josh and Lana weren't the ones we'd been looking for, but Michael poked me in the ribs and spoke himself. "Sure. We can do that."

She nodded and then turned on her heel and left. As soon as she'd gotten to the end of the corridor and turned the corner, I said to Michael, "Why didn't you tell her about everyone else?"

He shrugged. "I don't particularly want her following us around. I thought we could find them ourselves. And if they've left the campus, it's no big deal. We'll find other ways to amuse ourselves."

You know, Michael's intelligence never ceases to amaze me. Lilly's bothers me, but Michael is smart in a different way. He cares about the _important_ things.

"You guys go back to the library," Michael told them Lana and Josh when they walked meekly out of the locker room. "And stay there. I don't care if you talk or eat your lunch, or whatever, just don't make a mess, don't be too loud, and don't leave."

Josh scowled, then took a pouting Lana by the hand and led her into the library across the hall.

"Wow, you've changed your tone a lot," I told him. "You were running detention like a boot camp this morning."

"Yeah, well that was mostly to stop Lilly from coming up and talking to me. Usually I don't care about a little chatter. So long as it doesn't stop me from searching the school files. Now come on, we have some detainees to find!"

He grabbed my hand and led me back down the hall towards the gym.

-

The gym isn't that far away, but when you stop every few steps to kiss or whisper sweet nothings in each others ears, it takes a lot longer than it usually would to reach it. And when we did reach it, I was wishing it were further away. Like in Mexico.

We stared at the closed door. Sounds of basketballs flying across the room could be heard quite easily, but neither of us rushed to open the door. Michael squeezed my hand a little tighter. "These guys," he said, "they won't come away very easily. And they won't be polite about it either. Do you want to go back to the library?"

"No," I said, trying to sound confident. I'm not so sure it came off as well as I would've liked. "I'll come."

He swung the door open and let it bash against the wall behind it. Some entrance.

It sure got everyone's attention though; the guys stopped in their tracks. A few uncontrolled balls kept bouncing, the thump thump thumping was the only sound in the otherwise silent gym.

Michael dropped my hand like a hot potato. "All right guys, you've had your fun. Time to get back to detention."

"What if we don't want to go?" one of them asked. I don't know his name, but I've seen him around. I think he's a junior. He doesn't seem the least afraid of Michael though.

"Too bad, Tommy," Michael said, his voice cracking only slightly. "So put the balls away and follow me."

"What's _she_ doing here?" The guy's friend asked, pointing to me. "You need backup to get us all back do you? So why'd you pick _her_?" He started laughing uncontrollably and I could feel my face heating up.

"She's not here for backup, you dolt. Now come on."

"So what is she here for then, Moscovitz? Is she your little girlfirend? A little young, don't you think?"

Oh my God, can we just get out of here, already? My face is so red I think it's going to explode any minute now. And why isn't Michael saying anything to defend me? Maybe I am too young, and he knows it.

Michael stuttered to respond, "Come on guys."

"No! We don't want to go back!"

Uh oh, we may have a revolution on our hands. It's too bad I'm too upset by the comments these guys have made to give a damn. _I_ knew I was too young for someone like Michael, and not good enough or whatever, I just figured _he_ didn't know it! Denial can be a happy place, you know.

Michael's starting to sweat. He also knows he's fighting a losing battle.

Suddenly I felt someone's presence next to me. I looked up to see Lars standing there.

"I think Michael has asked you all enough times," he said, holding his jacket tight against his chest so his glock was clearly visible. "Don't make me have to ask you myself."

I felt a rush of pride and gratitude for Lars. He always knows just what to do. He never invades my space unless it's clear I need him, like now. I smiled up at him, but he was too busy glaring at the guys to notice.

Then, like little puppies, they put their basketballs away and walked out of the gym, with their tails between their legs.

"Thanks, Lars," I said, once they were all through the door and we were following behind.

"Yeah, thanks. I don't know how I would have managed to get them out otherwise," Michael said.

I didn't look at him. It's pretty clear he's not going to want anything to do with me now that my youngness and unsuitability has been brought to his attention or whatever.

At least I'll always have the memory of those blissful few minutes where Michael actually believed he liked me.


	7. WMD

When we all reached the library, it was surprisingly quiet. Lilly was eating her sandwich, and Lana and Josh were practically eating each other. They reluctantly broke apart when they finally noticed the runaway boys were not only back, but gawking at them.

I sat down next to Lilly without a word, or even a look, to Michael. Lilly raised her eyebrows at me but I said nothing.

"All right," Michael said from the front of the room. "Now we've all had a fun morning, let's just eat our lunches and then get back to silent study or whatever it is you're doing. No talking!"

I pulled out my squashed sandwich and started to eat it.

"Mia," Lilly whispered. "What happened?"

"Nothing," I whispered back, careful to shield my nostrils with my lunch.

She started to say something else but was distracted by Michael, who'd come to kneel beside my desk. She raised her eyebrows.

"Mia," he whispered. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," I said, not looking at him.

"You don't seem fine. Are you upset over what Clarke and Tommy said?"

I sighed. "I thought you said we had to be silent? It's not exactly fair if you make everyone be quiet if you don't enforce the rule yourself."

"Fine. Do you want to talk outside?"

"No, thank you. I'm fine here."

"Mia…"

I ignored him. It's better this way. At least now he doesn't have to break my heart by telling me what I already know he feels. That I'm too young and that it was all a big mistake. He never should have kissed me in the first place. I know it, and now so does he.

Eventually he sighed and left. As soon as he'd gone I was hit with yet another note-bullet from Lilly. This one landed on my can of Sprite, but luckily didn't go inside.

_Ok, don't tell me it was 'nothing.' Clearly _something_ happened out there. What was it?_

I know Lilly is not the type of person to anger in a situation like this, but I'm really not in the mood for her right now. I'm heartbroken. So I wrote back,

_NOTHING._

That'll teach her for sticking her pug-nose in where it doesn't belong.

I've been ignoring both Michael and Lilly for the last hour. He's sitting at the librarian's desk, probably sifting through the school files for incriminating evidence against Tommy and his loser minions, so that next time they run away he can threaten them with it and not have to resort to getting Lars out.

And Lilly gave up throwing note-bullets after I ignored five of them. And let me tell you, it was hard to ignore the one that flew up my nose. She's now busied herself in work.

Lana and Josh are taking their time sharing a bag of M&M's. They're taking so long because they eat one, then kiss for about five minutes, then eat another, and kiss again. It's a disgusting cycle.

Tommy and his friends are surprisingly silent. I think they're actually working. Or maybe they're just drawing up plans for their next runaway from detention or bank robbery or whatever. They keep sneaking looks back at Lars, who's polishing his glock with his hanky.

And me? What have I been doing for the last hour? I've been so busy ignoring Michael that I haven't taken my eyes off him. And I can't think enough to actually answer any of these stupid Algebra questions.

But at least there's only another hour to go before we get let out. I guess I can just count the holes in the ceiling to occupy myself…

Ok, new plan. There's too many holes in the ceiling to be bothered counting them all. So I'm just going to make up a number and be done with it.

Three hundred and…fifty seven holes. Now my brain can rest easy and I can think of important things. Like Michael.

No, not like Michael. I don't want to think about him. And it's not as if he's even thinking about me. He hasn't looked up from his computer screen in about a million years. He's not in anguish over us being over before we even got going! We could've had a love like they do in movies! But now we'll never know. And he's clearly not heartbroken about it!

Ok, Mia. You need to stop thinking about him. You need to get your head straight.

I lay my head down on the desk and closed my eyes. Rest, that's all I need.

A voice above me coughed and I felt a note being pushed under my arm. By the time I looked up to see who it was, they'd walked off. I turned around to see Michael talking to Lars, and Lilly looking at me with raised eyebrows.

I opened the note and read it, despite having ignored all of Lilly's previous notes. But what if this one's from Michael!

Look, Thermopolis, I don't know what happened to freak you out or get you angry at me or whatever, but just stick around after detention to talk to me about it, ok?

Ha! Like that's going to happen. As soon as detention is over I'm out of here! There's no way I'm sticking around to hear Michael's pathetic attempt to tell me there's no hope for us. I know that enough already!

I crumpled the note and put my head back down, ignoring Lilly's frantic attempts to get my attention. Boy, is she going to be pissed when we get out of here and she can yell at me.


	8. Avoidance

Two fifty nine and forty seconds. Only twenty to go until I can get out of here. 

…Three o'clock on the dot! Finally!

I looked up at Michael to see that he hadn't been watching the clock like a hawk for the last hour, like I've been. And there's no bell on Saturdays to signal home time, so are we just supposed to leave?

Great, it's now three oh one. Why hasn't anyone else noticed? Oh, that's right, because they're actually doing 'work' or they're kissing still. Jeez. Is it up to me to get us out of here?

I coughed loudly and looked out the window so that when Michael looked up at me, he wouldn't think I'd coughed to get his attention.

But it worked anyway!

"All right, everyone," Michael said, looking at his watch and standing up. "That's it for today. You can go home now."

Thank the Lord.

I grabbed my books and my bodyguard and high tailed it out of there.

"Mia!" I heard Michael calling out to me as I ran to the freedom of the outside world. I didn't stop though. I just kept going.

"Mia, maybe you should just talk to him," Lars said as I dashed for the limo.

That stopped me. Standing at the door, I said to him, "Lars, are you my bodyguard, or are you his friend? Which is more important to you? Let me just remind you how scary my grandmother can be." I started to do my famous Grandmere impersonation, but he stopped me.

"You're right, I'm sorry. If you want to go, let's go."

"Thank you." I opened the door and jumped in, just as Michael was running outside.

"Mia!" he cried. "Lars!"

I saw Lars shrug before getting inside. Once he was safely in, I yelled at the driver to go. I didn't even turn around to see Michael at all.

* * *

Lilly called me later that night. "What was your problem today? God, sometimes you can be such a…a…" 

"A what, Lilly?" I asked in a bored tone. I wonder if Michael's there?

"An idiot! And Michael's been in a bad mood all afternoon, what happened with you guys?"

"Nothing."

"There you go with the _nothing_ again, Mia. But I know it's not nothing. Michael doesn't mope around the house for nothing. Usually he skips in that annoying way of his."

"Well so what if it's actually something? It doesn't mean you have a right to know!"

"Fine. If that's how you want to be, that's just fine, Mia. I'll see you on Monday."

She hung up before I could say another word. Which is probably a good thing because knowing me, I would've been scrambling around for forgiveness. Which I mustn't do!

I mustn't.

* * *

Boy, Michael Moscovitz sure is a tough person to avoid. 

He rides to school with me and Lilly in the morning; he walks me to my locker in the mornings; he meets me outside my Algebra classroom; he sits at our table at lunch; he sits next to me in G&T.

And each time he does these things, I look away or start talking to someone else. You'd think he'd get the message after an entire week, but I guess not. He still keeps trying to talk to me.

Maybe I should just tell him that he doesn't have to bother explaining anything to me, because I know how he feels…

But then, that would require the use of my vocal cords around him, which, for some bizarre reason, have been acting up every time he gets within three feet.

Funny that.

On Friday afternoon, I thought I was going to survive. I thought I'd gotten through the week without going completely insane.

But no, of course that couldn't happen.

I was just sitting there in G&T, absentmindedly flipping through my Algebra notes while Michael whispered my name over and over again, trying to get my attention. It's quite annoying, really. But then, while I was sitting there, someone walked in the room and announces that Ms Gupta wants to see me.

I shot a look at Lilly, who's been ignoring me as much as I've been ignoring Michael recently. Am I in trouble for something she's done again?

With shaking hands, I walked into her office and sat down. I hate Ms Gupta's office. It's so small and dark, and whenever she calls me in here, it's not for something good.

"Mia, thank you for coming in. I recently installed a program in the computer files that alerts me when students have accounted enough tardy's to win them a trip to detention. Granted, I'm still working out a few kinks, but this afternoon it informed me that you, in fact, have more than enough."

What? Since when am I late? EVER?

"What?" I asked her, dumbfounded. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know, Mia. I too was surprised, so I checked it out, and it's correct. It says right here that in the past two weeks, you've been late almost a dozen times. So I'm going to have to issue you with a detention tomorrow morning. Eight am, don't be late."

Oh no, Grandmere's ball is tomorrow night, we're supposed to spend the day at a day spa relaxing and getting facial masks and whatever. She's going to kill me!

* * *

I returned to G&T to find Michael was sitting in a seat across the room. I guess he's finally gotten the point that I don't want to talk to him. 

Lilly's decided to talk to me again though. Which is a bit of a shame, since Lilly not talking is a bit like a holiday.

"What'd you do?"

"Nothing," I replied. "I totally don't get it, but apparently I've been tardy too many times and she's sending me to detention again."

"You, tardy? Yeah, right. There's got to be something wrong with her sys…Oh, wait…" She stopped talking and looked at something behind me. "Never mind."

"What?" I asked her. I hate when people say 'Never mind' because obviously it was important or else you wouldn't have started saying it.

"No, nothing. It's ok. Have fun at detention tomorrow."

After that, she went back to ignoring me. Good. I don't need her anyway.


	9. Detention Again

Final chapter. No more updates for this particular story. Thanks for reading.

* * *

I woke up with a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. How could I have forgotten that Michael will be supervising detention?

With that thought, I couldn't even stomach any breakfast. I arrived at school with a rumbling tummy, and a heavy heart.

Taking a deep breath, then another, I finally opened the door to the library.

No one's here. No Michael, no Clarke and Tommy, no Lana and Josh, no one.

I glanced down at my Princess Leia novelty watch and saw that it was seven fifty nine, so where is everyone?

I sat down in the same seat as last time, and noticed that Lars hadn't followed me into the room, he was just hovering by the door.

"Lars!" I hissed. "Come sit down!"

He simply shook his head. Something seriously strange is happening. Is Lars being extra security conscious and planning on frisking everyone who gets through the doors this week? Or is he…

I got my answer a second later. Michael walked in, shook hands with Lars, and Lars left.

HE LEFT?

I jumped up.

"Mia, sit down," Michael said.

"No, I have to talk to Lars. Where is he going?" I moved towards the door.

"He's just standing outside it, he's not going anywhere. Now sit down."

And be alone with him all day? No way.

I ignored him and moved with more speed. He jumped in between me and a desk and blocked my path.

"Michael, move. I just want to talk to him. I don't want to be…" I almost said 'alone with you,' but with the look in Michael's eye, I couldn't. "I'd just feel safer with him in here, is all."

"Are you afraid of me?" he asked seriously.

"No," I said automatically. "But Lars is always around, it's not right that he's not here, and it feels weird."

"Well, Mia, I asked Lars to stay outside for a reason. It's not his idea."

"It's not? Why did you ask him?"

I stopped trying to get past him and looked around the room. "And where is everyone else? I thought you said those guys were in detention every week."

Michael sighed. "Mia, do you really think you had any tardy's at all? No, you were clean. But then I tweaked it so that you would be here. And I tweaked everyone else's file who would have otherwise been in here today. I wanted it to be just us, because you won't talk to me, and we need to talk."

I stared at him. "I can't believe you did that! Do you realise you're messing with peoples _lives_ here!"

Slight exageration, I guess.

I sat down and looked out the window. I don't want to talk to him. This is the conversation I worked so hard to avoid all week, and now he's unfairly trapped me into it.

Bastard.

He knelt down in front of my desk. I looked pointedly in the other direction.

"Mia," he said gently.

I twisted my seat in a childish attempt to show him I wasn't listening.

"Doesn't this show how much I want to make things right with us? I want to sort this out, make it better."

Yeah, sure. Make it better. His idea of better is breaking my heart and then feeling like his conscience is clean.

"Michael, look. I get it, ok? That's why I haven't wanted to have this conversation. Because I know how you feel. I get it."

He looked at me strangely. "Really? Because you haven't been acting like you know how I'm feeling."

"I just don't want it spelled out for me. I'm not an idiot, I know I'm too young for you, and that it could never work, yada yada yada." Embarrassed that I'd finally said the words out loud, I turned red and looked away.

"You know, Mia," Michael said, standing up and looking down at me. "I've never once though you were an idiot. I know you're always hard on yourself, but I've always known you weren't stupid. But now, after you've just said that, and knowing that that's what you truly believe, I do think you're an idiot."

I looked up at him with my mouth open. But by then he'd already turned around and walked up to the desk at the front.

So now he's calling me an idiot! He's just rubbing salt in the wound, isn't he!

What did he mean that if that's truly what I believe then it makes me an idiot? Does that mean that what I believe isn't right?

So then, what is right?

I spent all morning thinking about it. Every now and then I'd look up at Michael, but he has his head buried in books, or a computer, and is resolutely not looking at me.

I put my sandwich down and raised my hand. I know this isn't class, but he already thinks I'm stupid so who cares.

I cleared my throat and he looked up at me.

Then he looked back down at his books, completely ignoring me.

How rude!

I got up and walked towards his desk.

Just like I had done before, he turned his chair in the opposite direction.

"Michael," I said bluntly.

No response.

I knelt down, my heart pounding against my ribcage.

"Michael, I'm sorry I was such a child before. I thought you were going to break my heart and stomp all over it."

He looked at me with wide eyes. "How could you have ever thought that?"

"Well, after what happened at detention last week, what Tommy and those guys said, I thought you wouldn't have wanted anything to do with me, so I was trying to make it easier by just ignoring you, so that you wouldn't have to tell me to my face."

"Mia, what those guys said have nothing to do with how I feel. Do you think I didn't realise before last week that you're younger than me? Do you think I haven't already considered the fact that you're a princess and it could pose a lot of problems in the future? Of course I realised that! You act as if I'm an idiot."

"You called me an idiot," I muttered, looking away.

"That's because you were being one," he lifted my chin up with his hand and smiled. "But now, if you've stopped being one, maybe you can listen to me?"

I nodded numbly.

"I know you're younger than me, and I know you're the Princess of Genovia, and I know there could be a lot of problems with any kind of relationship you may enter into, but I like you. I really like you. And I'm willing to work through any problems or anything that comes up, so long as you're there with me."

"So…you still like me?" I didn't add 'even though I'm an idiot', I don't want to bring that up again.

He grinned and pulled me up. "Let me show you how much." Then he kissed me.

"Michael," I said after a minute. "I hope you're going to change my record back."

"Already done," he replied, pointing to the blinkingscreen.


End file.
